Participant information

Partner 1 – University of Exeter

The University of Exeter is a research led top 10 UK university. It was described in 2008 by the UK Times Higher Education as one of the “rising stars among research intensive institutions”. The university has recently launched an inter-disciplinary "Climate Change and Sustainable Futures (CCSF)" initiative. The CCSF is part of a £30 million University-funded Science Strategy to support the climate change area. This funding builds on Exeter's world-leading research in climate prediction, adaptation and mitigation, and reinforces close liaison with the UK Met Office, also based in Exeter.

The School of Geography is ranked 8th in the UK for world leading research in Geography and Environmental Studies, according to the recent RAE in the UK. Undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are offered in both Human and Physical Geography on both the University’s campuses in Exeter and Cornwall.

Partner 2 – City of Suzhou

The city of Suzhou is one of the most important cities in east China. It is located next to Shanghai and has the most flourishing industry in this area. Suzhou has a population of 8.3 million people and covers an area of 8,488 km2. Suzhou is not only an old city with more than 2,500 years history, but also a new city with the most competitive and world famous Sino-Singapore Suzhou Industry Park. Protection of old culture and emphasis of urban planning and environment protection make the city beautiful and modern.

Partner 3 – City of Xi’an

The Environmental Protection Agency of Xi’an is part of Xi’an government, and is academically dependent on Beida Institute of Environmental Health Science and Technology in URGENCHE. Its research activities cover all aspects of environmental sciences and public health, and it has extensive expertise in environmental and health technology, environmental engineering technology, environmental planning and assessment, environment and health research and development of testing equipment. The daily operations, engineering and technical platforms are at Beida Institute of Environmental Health Science and Technology, Xi’an Junheng. The institute runs the routine of URGENCHE for Environmental Protection Agency of Xi’an. It has advantages in real-time monitoring of the environment, impact assessment of health effects, environmental planning and assessment, environment and health research and development of testing equipment, molecular epidemiology of the environment, low-carbon life promotion.

Partner 4 – City of Basle

Experience in air pollution quality and management and related environmental issues such as noise abatement, and emission inventories.

In 1988 an environmental co-ordination office within the building department of the city of Basle was set up in order to work as a co-operation agent with town planning authorities, engineering departments, policy authorities, the transport company, the clean air authority and the building and environment departments of the region of Basle. In 1991 the first environmental report of the city of Basle was published. The reports are updated every five years. The existing network related to environment issues within the city government guarantees the availability of data from multiple sectors (energy, housing, traffic, and demographics and the usage of existing models e.g. traffic, emissions).

Partner 5 – City of Kuopio

Kuopio is the largest city in Eastern Finland with a population of about 95,000. Kuopio had a local climate change policy and action plan accepted by the city council for the first time in 2003 and updated in 2009. Kuopio’s target is to reduce GHG emissions by 2020 by 40% from the 1990 level. The city also carries out a 3-year project to increase energy efficiency in all its activities, including heat and power generation, energy use, land use and traffic planning, procurements, waste and waste water treatment. The climate actions in Kuopio are coordinated by the Environment Centre of the city. The Environment Centre also takes care of air quality measurements and surveys in the region, noise abatement, soil pollution, water pollution and several tasks in local environmental law enforcement, as well as expertise in environmental health issues.

Partner 6 – City of Rotterdam

Staff involved in URGENCHE are part of the Department of Environmental Expertise of DCMR Environmental Protection Agency Rijnmond. This department contains, a.o. the energy and climate unit and the air quality unit. Both units will be involved in URGENCHE. DCMR is the licensing and enforcement agency for the Greater Rotterdam area, including the port of Rotterdam. The climate staff are involved in the Rotterdam Climate Initiative (part of the Clinton Climate Initiative) with an ambitious CO2 reduction target for the city and the port-industrial area. The air quality unit is involved in regional monitoring and high resolution modelling of local air quality, assessment of air pollution abatement strategies and compliance with CAFE directive, and assessing public exposure to air pollution.

Partner 7 – City of Stuttgart

Stuttgart has participated in several EU-projects addressing climate change issues, for instance, the project AMICA (Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change) which aimed to develop an integrated approach to environmental policy designed to combine long-term climate protection with short- and mid-term adaptation measures on the local level as a means to improve coherence of decisions and allocation of official means (Climate Alliance, 2006). Moreover, the project PROSIDE (Promoting Sustainable Inner Urban Development) also aimed to identify sustainable development measures in urban areas in order to improve local environmental conditions.

Partner 8 – Peking University

School of Public Health is part of the Health Science Center of Peking University, and is operationally dependent on Beida Institute of Environmental Health Science and Technology in URGENCHE. Its research activities cover all aspects of environmental sciences and public health, and it has extensive expertise in the epidemiology and health statistics, occupational and environmental health, nutrition and food hygiene, child and adolescent health and maternal and child health studies, health, toxicology, social medicine and health management.

Partner 9 – Nanjing University

Nanjing University (NJU) is one of China's top research universities, offering multi-disciplinary programs in humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, technological sciences, life sciences, modern engineering and management. The School of the Environment at Nanjing University, a leading research and educational institute in China, offers bachelor, master and Ph.D. degrees, plus professional degrees, postdoctoral training and continuous education programs in environmental sciences and engineering. Since 1996, the school’s 100 faculty and staff members have conducted hundreds of research projects, with total extramural funding over 100 million RMB, and published more than 2,000 journal articles in domestic and international journals. Together with city of Suzhou and tens of US and European institutes, Nanjing University has established an international research institute, Institute of Low Carbon Studies, with the aim of developing a model low carbon city in China.

Partner 10 - Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH)

The Centre for Research and Technology – Hellas (CERTH) is a private non-profit organisation (the largest of its kind in Northern Greece), which was established under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Development in March 2000. The Chemical Process Engineering Research Institute (CPERI) was one of its founding entities. CPERI has operated since 1985. It comprises six laboratories involved in R&D in the areas of Environmental Fuels and Hydrocarbons, Energy (conventional and renewable sources), Pollution Abatement Technologies, Environmental Risk Assessment, and Biochemical Processes. State of the art analytical equipment and pilot facilities in all the above areas are available at CPERI.

The CPERI/CERTH research team involved in this project has significant expertise in the field of this proposal, currently carrying out similar work in projects on aggregate environmental exposure and health impact assessment (i.e. SMAQ –LIFE and INTARESE -FP6) regarding the impact of CC adaptation and mitigation policies at the European level; such expertise includes specialised know-how in modelling environmental processes and pollutant emissions, pollution abatement technologies and the physical-chemical phenomena underlying them, as well as integrated exposure assessment and modelling, and HIA.

Partner 11 - Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM)

The Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh (IOM) is an independent charitable scientific organisation, established in 1969, with about 120 staff. Multi-disciplinary working (including epidemiology, human exposure assessment, statistical inference, health effects and mechanisms of disease) are central to its research and consultancy in occupational and environmental health (for the EC, UK Government Departments, research charities, specific industries).

Since the early 1990s, IOM has been active in quantitative environmental Health Impact Assessment (HIA), including the long-term ExternE programme of the EC (DG Research), and the Cost-Benefit Analysis of EC’s flagship Clean Air for Europe (CAFE) Programme. Associated methodological work, using life tables to assess the mortality impacts of air and other pollutants, is recognised as ground-breaking internationally. IOM leads the EU FP6 Integrated Project HEIMTSA (www.heimtsa.eu), developing methods and tools for HIA of policies impacting on a wide range of environmental pollutants and stressors, and including many URGENCHE partners (e.g. THL, UExeter, UStuttgart, TNO); and EDPHiS (www.edphis.org) for the Scottish Government, including a case study on well-being.

Partner 12 - Suomen Ymparistokeskus (SYKE)

Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) is a national research and development centre under the Ministry of the Environment, Finland. Research and development deal with changes in the environment, cause and effect relationships, means of resolving environmental problems and effects of policy measures. SYKE evaluates alternative scenarios and measures to influence future development. In addition to research and development, SYKE promotes sustainable development by assessing its implementation. It is also responsible for the national monitoring and assessment of the state of the environment, providing environmental information services and increasing public awareness of environmental issues.

Partner 13 - Terveyden ja Hyvinvoinnin Laitos (THL)

THL is a government research institute under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The Department of Environmental Health does research on a large variety of environmental pollutants and exposures (air pollution, persistent organic pollutants, indoor air) on human health. The expertise covers toxicology, epidemiology, environmental microbiology, analytical chemistry, and risk assessment and modelling.

Researchers involved in URGENCHE are part of the Business Unit Environment, Safety and Health (BUML) of TNO. BUML research is focused on emissions, dispersion and health impact of air pollution and noise. BUML maintains and develops dispersion models for point sources, motorways and urban streets and on the European scale LOTOS-EUROS. The GIS-based Integrated Assessment Model Urban Strategy is applied to reduce health impact by transport and improve well-being at the urban scale.

Partner 15 – University of Stuttgart

The University of Stuttgart is represented here by IER/TFU – Institute for Energy Economics and Rational Use of Energy, Department on Technology Assessment and Environment, ISV – Institute for Road and Transport Science, Department of Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering., and ILPÖ – Institute of Landscape Planning and Ecology.

IER has been engaged in research work in the fields of air pollution and air pollution control, environmental economy and integrated impact assessment for many years. Research has focused on calculation of anthropogenic emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, energy systems balances and modelling, integrated assessment model development, damage assessment modelling, risk assessment and water-soil modelling and estimation of external costs of energy and transport systems.

ISV has a large experience in topics dealing with how to reduce the environmental impact of transport, both in rural and urban areas. This experience covers studies on the improvement of traffic calmed areas with respect to environmental topics, the assessment of measures to reduce climate relevant emissions or the modelling of the ban of through traffic of heavy vehicles through urban areas to reduce noise emissions.

ILPÖ has extensive experience in GIS and modelling applications in urban, environmental and landscape planning, and the assessment of urban thermal comfort, a key factor when considering the quality of urban environments and human health in urban development planning.

University of Stuttgart has been involved, as coordinator or partner, in a wide range of EC research projects and has a long experience in international research cooperation within the EU and also with Eastern European countries and developing countries. The results of their research have been actively disseminated through close links to public institutions, politicians and industry.

Partner 16 - Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

Since its founding in 1943, the Swiss Tropical Institute (STI), now Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) has become a world-renowned Institution for teaching, research and services in the field of International Health Development.

In June 2009 the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine of the University of Basel, internationally recognized in the areas of environmental epidemiology and women’s health, was integrated into the Swiss TPH. The team dedicated to air pollution epidemiology at Swiss TPH is spread over several units in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health of Swiss TPH, headed by Prof. Nino Künzli. Each unit has a strong specialization in exposure assessment, air pollution epidemiology, statistical modeling and health impact assessment that closely collaborate in the various national and international projects related to air pollution in which Swiss TPH participates.

Partner 17 - World Health Organisation (WHO)

European Centre for Environment and Health of the WHO Regional Office of Europe, with the ECEH Offices in Bonn and Rome, is a technical unit of WHO established in 1991 to provide science-policy interface to the WHO/Euro member states. It is responsible for the contribution to the scientific research, its review and evaluation, and formulation of policy advice to the Member States. It is leading preparation of the science-based normative documents, such as Air Quality Guidelines or methodologies, such as the “Methodological guidance on the economic appraisal of health effects related to walking and cycling”. Policy oriented reviews addressing public health adaptation to climate change and housing conditions supporting health. WHO team will collaborate with its Headquarters, and in particular with the unit responsible for assessment of health benefits of environmental interventions, assuring the links with China and other global activities.

Partner 18 - University of Bristol

Rated one of the top thirty universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2013), the University of Bristol has recently been named amongst the very best institutions in the UK for its research, according to new analysis by Times Higher Education of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 which takes into account the percentage of staff submitted. In this table, Bristol is place joint fifth with the University of Oxford.

The Department of Geography at Bristol was placed first in the country in the REF 2014.

This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 265114.